Flaming Lips and premiere of their homemade movie, “Christmas on Mars,” draw fans from afar

Flaming Lips fans hovered outside the circus-like movie tent just past the Sasquatch! events, squatting on the grass to get into a screening of the band’s homemade film, “Christmas on Mars,” a “full-length, sci-fi adventure film freak-out.”

The Flaming Lips’ “Christmas on Mars” screening tent (Chansanchai)

Brent Stauffer drove from Victoria, B.C., with his buddy Grant Dryden, “the biggest Flaming Lips fan in Edmonton” (in Alberta, Canada) and got in late Saturday night. The two are camping with a tent but the regular camping area filled up so they were bumped to premier. (Welcome, guys!)

Two years ago, the two came to Sasquatch, again, mostly for the Flaming Lips, but then they were also late, having hit a deer. They arrived then just in time for the big hailstorm, but stuck around to see Flaming Lips.

“I have a mind-expanding experience every time I see them,” said Dryden, who’s on his third mind-expanding experience with this festival. The Flaming Lips are the closer to the three-day event. “The screening is sort of an afterthought.”

The movie has been a work in progress for years, being filmed mostly in lead singer Wayne Coyne’s backyard. There are three screenings scheduled for tonight: 10, midnight and 2 a.m., with the tent expected to hold around 200 people.

Dryden psyched me up for their performance tomorrow.

“They have tons of audience participation, without being cloying. There’s a real sense of positivity and joy, a sense of a silver lining at every opportunity. They combine it all with really clever lyrics and mind-blowing musical influences, everything from Zeppelin to The Who to the Beatles. The music’s really beautiful one moment and then really gnarly.”

At that moment, lead singer Coyne peeked his head out from the tent. Cool.

“They’re inspiring on a creative level, that anyone can get good — and truly good,” Dryden said.

The Flaming Lips has also helped during some trying times.

Two years ago here Dryden went through an epic seven-hour journey wandering, lost, trying to find his tent, making him nearly “berserk.”

But he thought of all the band had gone through, and once he “let go” there it was — the tent.